For the fans of elongated puns, Columnist Doug Robarchek of the Charlotte Observer passes along this bit of business news:

The law firm of Vorhees and Goodfellow proudly announce that former judge Andrew Jolley will become a senior partner. Judge Jolley is a noted jurist and brings great prestige to the firm.

The firm also announces the addition of one Candace Nye as a partner. She is a former dancer at the Sexy Sluts Club and has no legal background at all, but she does possess certain photographs of Mr. Vorhees and Mr. Goodfellow.

The reorganized firm will be known as: Vorhees, A. Jolley, Goodfellow, and that nobody, Candy Nye.

IS SHE SAYING MEN ARE HALF-WITS?

You know how men complain that women gab too much? And women complain that men just won't tell you what they're thinking? Well, there just might be a scientific reason behind these age-old complaints.

According to Helen E. Fisher, an anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, women are indeed more accomplished talkers because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women than in men.

To prove this point, researchers have put half a person's brain to sleep and asked questions. Women, even with half the brain asleep, will produce some sort of answer. Men, on the other hand, continue to saw Z's.

This may be the reason for so-called women's intuition. Women pick up non-verbal cues better than men, says Fisher.

So that's why the wives are in the dining room chatting over coffee, while the men are in the den silently watching the basketball game.

PENINSULA TRIVIA

Last week's answer: The current Newport News city seal was adopted in 1958, when the old city of Newport News merged with the city of Warwick, and it contains symbols emblematic of both.

The three ships represent the fleet of Capt. Christopher Newport, which brought the first settlers to Jamestown; the city is named after him. The tree represents a giant elm that stood at Richneck plantation and beneath which, according to tradition, Warwick's county court convened in Colonial days.

This week's question: Hampton is an even older town than Williamsburg and Yorktown. So how come Hampton, unlike the others, has scarcely any 18th-century buildings remaining?